


Text Me Bigfoot

by ProsperDemeter



Series: Quarantine Fics [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Asexual Character, Camping, Coming Out, Gay Character, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kid Harry Osborn, Kid Peter Parker, M/M, Norman Osborn's A+ parenting, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Ben Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:53:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27027634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProsperDemeter/pseuds/ProsperDemeter
Summary: Harry: did i ever tell u about that time Pete and i went upstate w Ben to look 4 BigfootGwen: w a tNed: omg HarryMJ: babe you did itMiles: WaitMiles: IS THIS THE STORYHarls: lmaoHarls: @PeteMJ: quick keep goingHarry: y would u summon him 😭Ned: He's not here yet just say it!Gwen: go go goPete: HARRY DON'TMiles: YOU HAVE SILENCED HIM FOR TOO LONG--Or: Harry finally gets to tell his "one time (at band camp)" story.
Relationships: Ben Parker & Peter Parker, Ben Parker/May Parker (Spider-Man), Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Harry Osborn & Ben Parker, Harry Osborn & Peter Parker
Series: Quarantine Fics [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1717060
Comments: 13
Kudos: 140





	Text Me Bigfoot

**Author's Note:**

> Hi friends! It's been a l o n g time since I did anything in this series but I promised people this story would come out and why not do it right around Halloween? 
> 
> Unfortunately, the pandemic is still going on (ugh) b u t I hope I can put a little bit of a smile on all of your faces with this little fic. 
> 
> You do NOT need to have read Text Me Quarantine in order to understand the events of this fic. You’ll just miss quite the significance of Harry finally telling the story and the joke at the end. 😊

**_Clusterfuck _ **

**Harry** : did i ever tell u about that time Pete and i went upstate w Ben to look 4 Bigfoot

 **Gwen:** w a t 

**Ned** : omg Harry

 **MJ:** babe you did it 

**Miles** : Wait 

**Miles:** IS THIS THE STORY

 **Harls** : lmao 

**Harls** : @Pete 

**MJ:** quick keep going

 **Harry** : y would u summon him 😭

 **Ned** : He's not here yet just say it! 

**Gwen:** go go go 

**Pete:** HARRY DON'T 

**Miles** : YOU HAVE SILENCED HIM FOR TOO LONG 

**Harry:** ONE TIME BEN PARKER TOOK ME AND PETER UPSTATE TO LOOK FOR BIGFOOT 

**Pete:** NO

 **Harry:** AND PETER AND I RAN AWAY TO LOOK FOR HIM OURSELVES 

**Pete:** STOP

 **Harry:** AND PETER GOT SCARED BY THIS REALLY BIG HAIRY MAN

 **Pete:** HAROLD 

**Harry:** ANDSUGAGSU

 **MJ:** damn he got him

 **Miles:** NOOOOO

 **Gwen:** Peter Parker: _ruiner of fun_

 **Ned:** Why won’t you let Harry tell his story?

 **Ned:** Harry deserves r i g h t s

 **MJ:** ^

 **Miles:** ^^

 **Harls:** it’s what he deserves

 **MJ:** Keener i will destroy you

 **Harls:** bring it, Jones

 **Miles:** end him, MJ

 **Pete:** how about

 **Pete:** don’t

 **Harry:** anyway, as i was saying

 **Pete:** HARRY NO

 **MJ:** HARRY YES

 **MJ:** quick i’ll sit on him

 **Harry:** so we were like 12

 **Harry:** and Peter had just watched this documentary about Bigfoot and decided that he was r e a l and he had to meet him

* * *

Fall came quick and cold into New York and with it came Peter’s newest obsession in the big, furry and sometimes kindly cryptid Bigfoot. For the most part, Ben figured it was a harmless venture - Peter _always_ was picking one thing or another to dedicate his, rather ample, brain power to fixate on. It reminded him an awful lot of Richard from when they were younger. He approached it with the same sort of caution he would award his brother back then - let him have his thoughts and obsessions and gently, hopefully, nudge him towards something completely different. 

Because, well, _Ben’s_ current obsession was the outdoors. 

“They’re basically the same thing,” May said from the stove where she was trying, unsuccessfully, to make something edible for her turn to make dinner that night. Peter was at the coffee table in the living room, the big Encyclopedia of Bigfoot open in front of him and a cartoon on that he was using more for background noise than anything useful. Ben, for his part, was positioned between both of his favorite disasters - it was always a constant game of if May would set something on fire or Peter would spill his drink all over his book first. And Ben, the only _responsible_ adult out of the two adults raising Peter Parker, had to be on the lookout for whichever disaster would occur first. “Just take him upstate to look for Bigfoot and -.” 

“We’re going to look for Bigfoot?!” Peter all but squealed from the living room, immediately standing, nudging his head between Ben’s hip and the door jam and blinking up at his aunt and uncle. He was all limbs at twelve - still short but with flopping feet and unsure what exactly fashion was. His jeans were about half an inch too short, his shirt had a giant hole at the bottom and he had stolen - _borrowed_ \- one of Ben’s old 1980s jean jackets with patches messily sewn on. He wondered if Peter even knew what Y2K _was_. 

“Yes,” May smiled at Peter and Ben had a moment where his heart seemed to stop at how absolutely gorgeous she was. How had he gotten so lucky to have a woman like May? “Uncle Ben’s going to take you.” 

And _then_ Ben remembered that it wasn’t entirely _all_ luck that had him land someone like May. He must have done something wrong in a previous life to be blessed with someone so devious as the love of his life. He wrinkled his nose even as Peter pulled excitedly on his arm and Ben supposed he _was_ lucky that Peter was the sort of pre-teen that didn’t immediately shove any adult away from him. He _was_ a pre-teen, though, and would much rather spend any time available to him with Ned or Harry or playing video games. And he had sworn at May and Ben exactly _once_ in the past six months and immediately regretted it. 

He was a good kid. 

Ben wasn’t a genius like Richard or Mary or even _Peter_ . But he knew people and he knew his nephew. Peter Parker was the best of all the adults in his life - he had Richard’s brains, Mary’s beauty, May’s charm and Ben’s kindness. Pragmatically, Ben knew that Richard and Mary didn’t have much to do with the man Peter was turning into - he had been seven when they died and while he had _memories_ of them they were more ghosts of stories Ben and May had told him than actual life lessons. “Yep.” Ben said after a moment that was perhaps too long of studying the curve of youth on his nephew’s face. “You have a long weekend next week so I’ll bring you then.” 

“Can Harry come?” Peter asked almost immediately but then seemed to grow quiet only moments after the question. A light spattering of pink covered his cheeks and he shuffled his feet and Ben wondered, not for the first time, if Peter had a _crush_ on his best friend. “It’s just… it’s his birthday next weekend and Mister Osborn’s going to be gone.” 

Ben would have been lying if he said that those words didn’t cause an almost immediate and large pain in his chest. Norman Osborn. He had always been a point of contention between Ben and Richard - mainly that he was Richard’s best friend and Ben _hated_ him. To miss his son’s birthday was a new sort of cruel - not that Ben missed the bruises and flinching and general tension around raised voices. Norman Osborn wasn’t a nice man and he was an even worse father and the police officer - the _father_ \- in Ben wanted nothing more than to put him behind bars. 

Because as much as Ben had raised Peter he had also _watched_ Harry Osborn grow up. They had been friends since diapers and practically brothers ever since. Harry spent more time and holidays with the Parkers than he did with Norman or his own uncle. And Elizabeth _had_ died just that year. 

He sighed and wondered why he had expected anything different. At least Ben _liked_ Harry (he liked Ned too, and besides those two Peter didn’t have many friends but the rest of the kids his age that he invited around the apartment Ben could happily do without). “If Norman says yes.” 

Peter brightened and hugged Ben tight around the waist. “Thank you, Uncle Ben! I’ll go call him!” He ran off to do just that - ran into a wall too because he _wasn’t_ wearing his glasses - and Ben dropped his face into his hands. 

“You could have said no,” May hummed with the teasing sort of smile that made Ben’s knees weak. 

“Don’t lie to me like that.” 

Like clockwork, Peter kicked the table and his glass of water spilled over his open book and the fire alarm screeched to remind May of her quickly burning dinner attempt. 

Ben got the fire extinguisher and threw the paper towels at his distressed nephew.

-

“Thank you for bringing me along, Mister Parker.” Harry Osborn was sitting in the back of Ben’s ten year old Toyota truck and he had a fresh bruise on his jaw that Ben was pretending not to notice. Peter was buzzing with energy, holding onto the - thankfully now dry - Encyclopedia of Bigfoot and humming the Indiana Jones theme beside him. And Ben… well Ben was only on his second cup of coffee that morning after coming off a late night shift the day before. Or was it that morning? Either way, Ben had only gotten around three hours of sleep before Norman Osborn’s driver had dropped off Harry and May had left all three boys with a kiss on their foreheads. 

“Kid, are you ever going to call me Ben?” Because Mister Parker was either Richard or their father and it _certainly_ wasn’t Ben. He didn’t even like being _Officer Parker_. 

“Probably not!” Peter answered for his friend and Ben had to remind himself that he loved his nephew because his energy first thing in the morning was sometimes concerning. Weren’t teenagers - and pre-teens - supposed to _hate_ waking up? He was going to work himself into an asthma attack. 

Ben _had_ packed Peter’s backup inhaler hadn’t he? “You have your inhaler, right?” He made eye contact with Peter in the rearview mirror at a stop light and his nephew huffed and sat back in his seat, the seat belt digging into the skin of his jaw. 

“ _Yes_.” There was the pre-teen. Hidden in the eye roll. 

“I have his extra.” 

“ _Harry_!” Peter looked betrayed but Ben was sure to salute the blonde boy with a careful smirk. 

“Thanks for that, Har.” 

It was Peter’s nickname for him but it was quickly catching on through the family and Ned. “You’re welcome, Mister Parker.” Harry flushed and it made his bruise look not nearly as bad as it did without it. Less red. “Sorry. Ben.” 

“We’ll get you there.” 

“No you won’t.” Peter argued with a gumption that only the know-it-all could produce. “Well he _won’t_ ,” Peter shot Harry’s direction after the elbow his friend jammed into his side and yet another eye-roll to envy all other eye-rolls. 

“This _is_ going to be a fun trip, right boys?” Because Ben _had_ to be the adult out of the three of them even if playing the adult was so terribly _boring_. 

“Of course!” Peter exclaimed. “We’re going to find Bigfoot!” 

“Bigfoot isn't real, Peter.” Harry scoffed as though Peter’s belief in the cryptid caused him physical agony. 

Peter, in return, looked properly insulted. “He _could_ be real. How do you know he’s not?” 

Ben loved the believer in his nephew. He loved how much Peter was willing to toss his entire considerable brain power into solving a puzzle. Ben just hoped that he would always use that brain power for good instead of… something like Norman Osborn. “Don’t you think if Bigfoot _was_ real, someone would have found him by now?” 

“That’s like saying aliens aren’t real just because we haven’t made contact yet!” The look on Harry’s face said more than his words ever could and Peter let out a noise of pure outrage. “What kind of _scientist_ -!” 

Ben helpfully tuned out the rest of Peter’s angry retort. He didn’t currently have the energy to deal with that level of antagonism and, besides, if anyone could handle him in a nice way it was Harry. He stifled a laugh at the look of bored solidarity Harry shot him in the rearview and pursed his lips - at least Ben wasn’t going to be stuck putting up with Peter’s rants on his own. 

-

“Happy birthday, kid.” Ben said in the silence as Peter did… whatever it was Peter was doing in the tent him and Harry had haphazardly constructed (and then Ben had to _re_ construct when it had promptly caved in on both boys when they decided it would be a good idea to play angry shadow puppets). They hadn’t packed a cake - and Ben wondered if he _should_ have - but Peter had brought cookies that weren’t burnt and had homemade royal icing piped over them like a piece of artwork and Ben supposed _that_ was probably what Peter was doing. It was apparently Ben’s unappointed job to distract. 

“Thank you.” Sometimes Ben wished he wasn’t as observant as his job required him to be because it was hard, now that they were out of the car, not to notice how Harry seemed to favor his right hand over his left (and the kid was a lefty so everything was _slightly_ off). He wished he was oblivious enough to believe the excuse of walking into a doorknob as the reason the bruise was there. 

Harry itched his nose and smiled and Ben wished he could pretend that he didn’t _know_ what was going on at home. He wished even more that he didn’t have to send him back. “Twelve.” Ben said the same way he had said it when Peter turned twelve a few months earlier. “Want to hear a tip from someone more than half your age that I wish _I_ knew when I was twelve?” 

“Sure.” Because Harry Osborn _never_ disagreed with Ben. Never to his face. Never disagreed with _anyone_ outside of Peter and Ben supposed that was because Peter was, well, _safe_. 

Ben licked his lips and looked out at the changing leaves reflected in the water of the lake below and thought _how in the world would Richard do this_ . “Sometimes asking for help is really hard and it might not seem like it at the time but in the end it is _so_ worth it.” 

Harry rubbed at his left wrist and bit at the inside of his lip. They were quiet for a long time (and it was okay, Ben was patient. He could wait.) until Harry licked his lips and opened his mouth to speak. His heart pounded in his chest and Ben _knew_ what was going to happen. And _finally_ , finally after twelve years of knowing this boy and after failing Elizabeth so hard he would be able to _help_. “Ben… I-.” 

“Happy birthday!” Peter jumped onto his friend’s back, sent Harry almost sprawling down to the leaf covered ground - stopped only by Ben’s quick reflexes - and a bag of cookies and a terribly wrapped present bounced off his chest. 

He tried not to let his disappointment show. They had the entire weekend to get answers and, well, Peter _did_ deserve some happiness with his friend. 

-

They were supposed to be asleep in their tent but Peter had switched on the flashlight the moment Ben’s snoring had picked up from _his_ tent and shined it determinedly into Harry’s eyes. His friend blinked, shoved his whole face away from his own and groaned into the crook of his elbow. “Peter _no_.” 

Peter smiled impishly. “Peter _yes_.” He shoved and pulled at Harry’s arm until he glared up at him warily. “Let’s go Bigfoot hunting.” 

Harry groaned again and bodily rolled away. “Peter,” He elongated the _r_ and stuffed his face in his pillow. “I want to _sleep_. Ben said we’re going fishing tomorrow.” 

“You hate fishing.” Peter reminded him and tugged harder. “If you don’t come I’m going to go myself.” 

“Good, go _yourself._ ” 

Peter huffed but crawled out of the tent alone, his jacket with the patches thrown over his shoulders and stopped by the slowly dwindling fire to shove his feet into his boots. “ _Why_ do we have to go at night anyway?” Harry whined - but softly - dropping beside Peter and rubbing tirelessly at his eyes. He already had his boots on. Peter smiled despite himself - like Harry would _ever_ let him wander off on his own. 

“Because that’s when they come out.” 

“Bigfoots?” Harry wrinkled his nose. “Big _feet_?” 

“Bigfooties?” 

“Bigfoot and friends?” 

Peter giggled despite himself and muffled the sound behind his fist. “Come on, before we wake up Ben.” He tossed Harry a flashlight and grabbed the backpack he had stashed by the entrance to their tent earlier that night - it was fully stocked with bottles of water, a thermos of hot cocoa, some snacks and extra batteries. And a flare gun. Just in case they got into some _real_ trouble. Not that Peter didn’t have faith in their ability to _avoid_ trouble; it was just… well with the two of them one could never be certain. 

Better to be safe than sorry, May always said. “Peter.” Harry stopped him with a soft, barely there, hand on his arm. 

Peter resisted the urge to groan. “Stop being the voice of reason, let’s have _fun_ -.” 

“Glasses. Inhaler.” 

His cheeks flushed instantly. “Oh,” Peter ducked his head and laughed to dislodge his embarrassment. “Right. Thanks.” 

“Let’s go, dumbass.” Harry said once Peter’s glasses were firmly balanced on his nose and inhaler stuffed in his pocket. 

“Let’s go find Bigfoot.” 

Harry rolled his eyes but it was harmless. “Let’s _go_ already.” 

-

A leaf rustled and branches snapped almost simultaneously. Peter grabbed onto Harry’s shirt sleeve in something that was a cross between excitement and fear. Harry, himself, stiffened as though someone had just told him if he moved that they would die. His eyes were wide - wider than Peter had ever seen them - and the flashlight beam in his hand shook with every breath. “Did you hear that?” Peter asked in a hushed tone - the darkness of the woods surrounding them like a blanket in a blanket fort they used to build in May’s living room. He swallowed past the rock in his throat. “M… Mister Bigfoot?” His voice shook on its way out. 

“ _Mister Bigfoot?”_ Harry muttered sideways incredulously and shot Peter a look that told him just how crazy he thought he was. 

“ _Miss_ Bigfoot?” 

Harry scoffed but, well, at least he wasn’t shaking quite so hard now. Still, Peter didn’t hesitate to weave their fingers together and press his palm against his own tight enough to feel the pulse. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Harry spoke into the still darkness mockingly and Peter glared even if it held no heat. 

They were both silent for another moment, waiting to hear anything other than the sound of bugs and rushing water from the lake to their right. “See?” Harry said triumphantly. “ _Nothing_ -.” 

A branch snapped. 

They both shrieked and huddled in closer than they had been before. Peter had almost dropped his flashlight and Harry _had_ dropped his in favor of grabbing onto Peter. It sent a bright stream of yellow across the floor of the woods and Peter didn’t know where to look - down at the flashlight or around the woods to make sure they were alone. “It was probably just a… a bear or something.” 

“A _bear_?!” Harry’s voice was very high and very loud simply because it was pressed against the skin of Peter’s ear. 

“I don’t _know_.” 

“I better not be a bear Peter.” 

“Because _I_ control what animals are found in the woods!” 

“Peter, I never agreed to be _killed by a bear_!” 

His glasses were slipping down his nose. “We’re not going to be killed by a bear.” 

“Are you going to fight them off with your inhaler?” 

“Don’t be a dick, Harry!” 

“I’m not being a dick, Peter! I’m just being logical here! If it _is_ a bear it’s probably looking for a midnight snack and we are both _delicious_ to bears-!” 

Another branch, closer this time and much bigger snapped along with a loud rustle of leaves. “I think I’m gay!” Peter shouted out in just in case Harry _was_ right and it _was_ a bear with a specific appetite for pre-teen boys. 

“I am _very_ proud of you for figuring that out Peter but _how_ _does that help us_?!” 

“I don’t _know_ I just don’t want to die without telling anyone!” 

“Wait, do you think we’re actually going to _die_ ?!” Because it really wasn’t a shock to Peter - or to anyone really - that Peter was the brave one of the two of them. Harry was afraid of the dark, and afraid of heights and afraid of loud noises and… well Peter was the one to charge head first into danger without much of a plan and still, _somehow_ , come out of the entire thing unscathed. Peter winced, he probably _shouldn’t_ have said it that way. 

“I don’t know, _maybe_?” He shrugged uselessly. 

“Well _shit_ why are we still standing here, let’s _go_ !” With their hands still linked, Harry all but dragged Peter backwards and in the vague direction they had come. Peter, as the more logical one of the two, was well aware that he was probably just getting them more lost but his fear outweighed his logic at that moment and he ran with the sort of abandon that wasn’t allowed to him with weak lungs. He didn’t weeze - Harry didn’t pull him fast enough to make him weeze and Peter _knew_ Harry had brought the backup inhaler too - but he _did_ stumble over branches and rocks and one time over a beer can. 

They stopped at a clearing and Peter doubled over, hands on his knees and lungs screaming in his chest. Harry fished through the backpack on Peter’s shoulders and grabbed a water bottle, Peter’s _not_ backup inhaler and dug around for a moment more before pulling back quickly and, honestly, a bit dramatically. “ _Shit,_ did you bring a gun?!” 

“It’s a _flare gun_.” Peter said between gasps and fumbled with the inhaler Harry shook and pressed to his lips. He nodded when he could spray and Harry pressed the button and counted to ten as the medication did its work and Peter’s lungs remembered how to do their job. He stood up straight and shook out his hands at his side. “It was just in case.” 

“You had a _gun_ and we just ran away from a _bear_ .” Harry looked torn between whether to laugh or cry, or perhaps he simply looked prepared to hit Peter and, honestly, Peter couldn’t blame him for that reaction. He _had_ dragged him out of their cozy tent and away from Ben (who had a _real_ gun) in order to hunt Bigfoot and _then_ had almost got him eaten. “We could have shot the thing!” 

“I forgot I had it.” Peter bemoaned and stole the water bottle when it was inches away from Harry’s lips. 

“Hey.” He let him take it, though, and leaned back heavily against the trunk of a tree. “Sucks it wasn’t Bigfoot, though.” 

Peter looked at him through his eyelashes, swallowed a chilly gulp of the water and cocked his head with a crooked smile. “I thought you didn’t believe in Bigfoot.” 

“I don’t.” Harry shrugged but matched Peter’s smile with one of his own. “But _you_ do.” 

It said enough even if it said nothing at all. Harry was willing to put aside whatever beliefs he had for Peter to be proven right. Peter didn’t think Harry realized how kind he was, how his selflessness made him one of the most attractive guys in their grade. He didn’t think Harry realized much of anything, or had a crush on anyone. Not like Peter did. He picked at his fingernails. “About what I said…” 

“What? About Bigfoot?” Harry wiped his nose on his jacket sleeve.

“No. The, uh…” 

“Oh.” Harry coughed and then shrugged again. “I mean you do you, Pete. As long as you’re happy I don’t care who you like.” 

“But like…” Relief made Peter’s shoulders drop. “Who do _you_ like?” 

“I don’t know.” Harry shuffled his feet. “No one.” 

“Oh.” Peter rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. “Okay. You don’t have to…” 

“No, like… _no one_.” He implored Peter with his eyes, begged him to understand what he was saying without having to say it and… well Peter thought he understood. 

“Like you’ve _never_.” 

“I don’t want to.” Harry shook his head fast and abruptly, loose blonde hair swirling in a tornado around his face. “That’s just… _no_ thank you.” 

Peter found himself laughing, then. Because it was such a _Harry_ answer. To be so completely nonchalant with Peter’s own revelation and then to describe his own in such a nonsensical way. And wasn’t it a tribute to their own friendship - their own brotherhood - that Peter had understood without many words needed. “Hug?” Peter held open his arms and beckoned Harry in closer. 

“Ew, Parker, no.” Harry shoved at his chest but it was weakly and without any actual force behind it. Peter laughed again, louder perhaps, more relaxed than he had been all _month_ since he had figured it out about himself and hugged his friend around the shoulder regardless. He breathed him in, felt Harry’s own body relax against his own and held on tight. 

He wouldn’t lose him, then. Ever. 

A grunt echoed from behind them and the leaves on the tree Harry was resting against moved against the wind. Peter pulled back and met Harry’s wide eyed and terrified stare with his own. _Oh god, they were going to die here_. 

He grabbed the flare gun out of his back and fumbled with the handle just as three things happened. 

A big, tall, furry figure appeared in the shadows. 

A voice from the same directions said, “Hey, are you kids okay?” 

And Uncle Ben yelled, “ _Peter_!” 

The shot lit up the sky, flew directly at the Bigfoot, and set his beard on fire. 

-

Ben woke up abruptly. Call it whatever you would like to - cop instincts, little brother radar, or, most accurately, Peter Parker is doing something stupid senses. Regardless, something triggered him awake in the dead of night at - he groaned at the LED on his watch and flopped onto his back - three forty six in the morning. He supposed he _should_ check on the boys. May had texted him earlier anyway to see how the three of them were faring. 

He stood up, stretched until his back cracked and made his way towards their tent. 

Which was open. 

And empty. 

Ben stared for a moment until panic set in. 

There was one thing that Ben found most movies and books underestimated or under explained - the _fear_ that encompasses a parent when their kid isn’t where they are supposed to be is _abrupt_ and _takes over_ . Because Ben couldn’t think straight. Peter was gone - Harry was gone - _his boys were gone_ \- and ten years with the New York City Brooklyn Police Department hadn’t taught him what to do. His mind ran in circles - it could have been some predator camping in the same area as them - saw two young boys and decided they were theirs. They wouldn’t have needed to try hard - get one of them and the other was going just to keep them safe. But Peter _knew_ better, Ben had trained him better. Make noise, scream, shout, kick, bite, hit, do whatever it took…. 

And then his gaze fell onto the encyclopedia. 

Ben swore. 

_Of course_. 

He grabbed a pair of jeans, stuffed his feet into his shoes and threw on his jacket, a flashlight in his mouth and phone pressed to his ear. “Hello?” He said once the phone connected to the Ranger’s office. “Yes, hello, I’m sorry it’s so early but my nephew and his friend decided to go Bigfoot hunting.” 

“Right now?” The Ranger sounded, perhaps, too eager to be able to help search for missing children in their woods. “How old are they?” 

“Twelve.” Going on _dead_ because Ben was going to _kill them_ for wandering off on their own. He would have thought that, _together,_ they had enough combined sense to know that was an idiotic move. 

“Well darn. What campsite are you at? We’ll start the search there with ya and I’ll send a few out to warn other campers.” 

-

“You _shot him_ with a flare gun.” Ben said again as though Peter needed to be reminded. He had a blanket thrown over his shoulders and Harry was nursing a cup of tea while an older ranger prodded at his injured wrist - not from the night, Peter had noticed it earlier but Harry had just shook his head and Peter hadn’t had the heart to push him on his birthday. Peter huddled farther into the blanket and poked his nose into the fabric. 

“I’m _sorry_.” He had apologized close to ten times already, and he could feel the telltale sting of shamed tears pulling at his eyes. 

Ben sighed and dropped down next to him, his arm heavy over his shoulders and side warm where he pulled Peter against him. “You _know_ you’re not supposed to go wander off on your own.” 

“I _wasn’t_ -.” 

“On your own, I know, I know. You had _Harry_ .” They _both_ knew that Harry was basically useless in a high pressure situation where he was scared even if they wouldn’t say it. It wasn’t _his_ fault, Peter wanted to say, but his dad’s for being so mean all the time. “Where did you even _get_ a flare gun?” 

“Aunt May got it for me.” 

Ben sighed, long suffering and Peter _knew_ with that sigh he was off the hook. “Aunt May _would_ get it for you.” He mumbled. “You burnt that guy’s beard.” 

“I thought he was Bigfoot.” 

“Bigfoot _isn’t real_.” Harry repeated petulantly and itched at his eye with his newly bandaged wrist. Peter frowned, Ben frowned and Harry shoved at them both before sitting down next to Peter and shouldering his way until the blanket until they shared the warm fabric. 

“You don’t _know_ that.” Peter poked him. 

“You shot a hairy man.” Harry stuck out his tongue. “Not a Bigfoot.” 

“ _Please_ ,” Ben groaned and pulled them both down until their backs met the cold, leaf covered ground. “Stop arguing.” 

“ _Ben_ ,” Peter whined. “Harry thinks Bigfoot isn’t real.” 

“ _Ben_ ,” Harry mocked. “Peter believes in everything the Scy-Fy channel tells him.” 

Ben growled and turned, fingers dancing over both boy’s rib cages until their laughter, boyish and loud, filled the early morning air. “You two _never_ stop talking.”

* * *

**_Clusterfuck_ **

**Gwen:** YOU SHOT A MAN

 **Ned:** You SET SOMEONE ON FIRE!

 **Harls:** YOU CAME OUT BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO BE EATEN BY A BEAR?!

 **Pete:** l i s t e n 

**Miles:** I’m crying that was a great story

 **Miles:** well worth the wait

 **Pete:** it was a stressful situation

 **MJ:** you’ve always been a disaster then

 **MJ:** nice to see times never change

 **Pete:** MJ i will cry

 **Harls:** don’t make him cry

**Harry:** wait so did i ever tell you about when we met up again in college?

 **Miles:** SPILL

 **Gwen:** y e s boi

 **Harls:** the t e a 

**MJ:** lmao

 **Ned:** ooooOOOO is this the story about when he punched you

 **Miles:** HE WHAT

 **Pete:** DON’T YOU DARE 

**Harry:** so

 **Harry:** one time

 **Pete:** AT BAND CAMP

**Author's Note:**

> !! I hope you all enjoyed! 
> 
> (And have a spoooooky Halloween! 👻👽🧟♂️)


End file.
